Western Kentucky University Students Honored In Hearst Photojournalism Competition

Paducah KY

06 January, 2022

2:53 AM

Description

Press release from Western Kentucky University: January 5, 2022 Two Western Kentucky University students finished in the top 10 in the first photojournalism competition of the 2021-2022 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Hearst Journalism Awards Program Sam Mallon, a senior from Silver Spring, Maryland, finished sixth in the Photojournalism Features and News Competition. Zane Meyer-Thornton, a senior from Los Angeles, California, finished seventh. WKU is in fourth place in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition after the first of two contests. Arizona State University and University of Florida are tied for first place with the highest accumulated student points in the first photo competition followed by Ohio University; WKU; University of Kentucky; Michigan State University (tie); Pennsylvania State University (tie); University of Maryland (tie); San Francisco State (tie); University of Oregon; and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2020-2021, WKU's School of Media won the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the fifth straight year and the 27th time in the past 32 years and finished third in the Overall Intercollegiate Competition, its 12th straight top five national ranking. WKU also finished second in the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition, an event it has won eight times in 10 years. WKU has finished in the top eight nationally in the Hearst program for 28 straight years and has won four overall national championships -- 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018. WKU students have won 15 Hearst individual national championships since 1985 — photojournalism in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016; multimedia in 2015; writing in 1985; and radio news in 2006. Often called "The Pulitzers of college journalism," the Hearst program consists of five writing, two photojournalism, one audio, two television and four multimedia competitions. The points earned by individual students in the monthly competitions determine each discipline's Intercollegiate ranking. The winners are those schools with the highest accumulated student points in each category. Funded and administered for 62 years by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards Program offers up to $700,000 in scholarships, grants and stipends annually; 103 colleges and universities with accredited undergraduate journalism schools are eligible to participate. This press release was produced by Western Kentucky University. The views expressed here are the author's own.